Mug Shot ~ Thanks Mukul

My friend Mukul Dube in Delhi, India sent me this mug. Thanks, Mukul! What a great birthday gift! Yeah, I turned 67 a couple of days ago and I look more fit and in better shape than my balding physician Larry. I got me a flatter belly also. Not to mention that mop of hair! Eat your heart out, Larry the Bald.

I guess this means that I'm going to have to stick my 15mm Voigtlander Heliar lens, that ultra ULTRA wide angle optic, my favorite lens, on one of my Leica camera bodies instead of the lightweight little mostly plastic Bessa L. That oughta build up my arms and shoulders, holding close to a kilogram of glass, brass, and chrome out there at arm's length. Strange, but it's mostly chicks that recognize the Leica name. Or take traditional darkroom courses at school and still shoot film! The Dudes talk about "megapixels" and auto this and auto that and frame rates, all that tech geek B.S. rather than wanting to learn how to make great eye catching photographs.

I like to sit out on my front porch in the morning, drinking my coffee, watching the dogs and kids walk by. I really enjoy watching the neighbor's cat trying to stalk the occasional wayward mouse that didn't manage to get into his hidey hole before it got light out.

The coffee tastes great in that new mug also. If you'd like one email Mukul. He can be reached at uthappam@gmail.com He'll want a check for $20, which includes shipping from Delhi, and the few dollars "profit" he uses to help out the malnourished children there. Obviously he can make good use of more money if you feel generous, and there's a saving in per mug shipping costs if you order more than one at a time, which is more more money for his good work.

Flo's Birthday Party

I got one of those fancy email invites to Flo Tiger's birthday bash. Her late husband Spencer had been one of my best and closest friends going back about 35 years. His sister Donna had passed away a few years ago also. Most all of the Tiger clan that I knew so well for so many years is no longer with us. But somehow Spencer had managed to meet and fall in love with this Miami Beach Jewish chick, Flo. They married, and a few years later Spencer was gone too.

I went to the party at this bayside restaurant and met lots of people I'd never met before. The two women with me in the bottom photo, Di and Michelle, were Donna's friends from high school. There were no Miccosukee Indians at the party.

As usual I was using my 15mm Heliar lens on a Bessa L. I also shot a bunch of pictures with Flo's Nikon DSLR. I never once looked at the LCD screen on the back of the camera to check my pictures. I knew they were just fine.

Another Day, Another Confrontation? The North Miami Election

I sure hope not. I've got my Bessa L with my favorite lens, the 15mm f/4.5 Heliar, and I'm taking my Leica M3 with my trusty old 85mm f/2 Nikkor. And lots of film!

At least I was able to pick up some 5 packs of Kodak Gold 200 on sale for $6.99 each at Walgreens, a real bargain.

...and it just started raining again. Crap!

Gotta Love Them Cute Young Chicks!

Lately I really have been making a serious attempt to make mayhem out of madness around here, digging through boxes, unpiling and repiling heaps of the stuff most folks would have just thrown out years ago. Not me. No way! I just try to keep track of where something might be stashed. Mental notes. If I were to write them down then that would just be one more thing to keep track of.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking through some photo finishing bags and found this print of myself with the lady, probably at a fishing club meeting, probably last year sometime. I wouldn't have dressed quite that casually for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. But then again, I might have. Keeps 'em guessing!

As I looked at the photo I thought that it reminded me of another picture that was here on my blog a long time ago. They're both self portraits. The bottom one was taken right around my birthday in 1962. I'd either just turned twenty or was about to. In the upper photo I'm sixty-five. I've gotten a touch of grey hair over the forty-five year span but I still have my hair. The chicks love it! That and my sexy eyes. At least that's what they tell me.

I still have piles of crap to go through, and I still can't bring myself to throw anything away. The piles and boxes have been rearranged and dusted. I've found a bunch of images that I want to post on the blog. I'm also thinking about shooting some new photos of places around town that I last photographed forty or so years ago. Somethings really change while others pretty much stay the same. And that woman? I keep wondering what she looked like back in 1962.

Tech info: The top photo was with a Bessa L equipped with a 15mm Heliar lens on Kodak Gold 200 film while the bottom photo was on Kodachrome II film with an Olympus Pen camera sporting a 28mm Zuiko lens.

Al Kaplan And Jon Sinish On Miami Beach

If you've been following this blog for awhile I'm sure that you're aware that Jon and I have been friends now for about forty years. We just look young! Every time he's visiting Miami there's the obligatory trip to Miami Beach so he can see the genuine Atlantic Ocean instead of Long Island Sound.

There's a bit of size distortion caused by the perspective of the 15mm Heliar, but I am 6' 3" and Jon is just a tad shorter. I have a much larger nose too. That part isn't camera induced distortion! The camera hanging from my shoulder is my Leica CL with a 40mm Summicron.

When I shot this one I hadn't had the Bessa with the 15mm Heliar for very long, and I wasn't yet very good at guessing the framing while holding the camera off to the side. I'm still not exactly adept at shooting verticals with the rig. I like this picture anyway. That stance and facial expression are pure Sinish!